Christie Coombs was on vacation with her children in August, walking through a Cape Cod shop, when a man approached her.

The stranger stopped Coombs to tell her he recognized her from television.

“My daughter just looked up at me and said, ‘Isn’t that weird, Mom?’” said Coombs, who lives in Abington.

But the encounter was not unusual for Coombs, who has battled unrelenting grief over the death of her husband, Jeffrey, in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack by sharing it with the world.

Without realizing she was doing it, or necessarily wanting to, Coombs has become a public face of the Sept. 11 tragedy for the South Shore and much of Massachusetts.

Jeffrey Coombs, 42, was on board American Flight 11 when it crashed into the World Trade Center.

He was on his way to Los Angeles for a three-day business trip.

In the first days after the attack, Christie Coombs readily told interviewers of Jeff’s life and her own shattered emotions. She and her three children made a statement of perseverance by attending a youth soccer game days after the attack. And in the months that followed, Coombs became a tireless activist and spokeswoman for victims’ families across the state.

“You can’t know how you’re going to deal with something like this. So when it happened, you don’t plan anything out, you just take it minute by minute,” Coombs said. “In my case, dealing with it meant finding a diversion and not sitting at home thinking about my sadness, and instead reaching out to other families and being vocal on issues.

“To an extent, it’s selfish. It gets me out and keeps my mind working,” she said.

Coombs is constantly busy, dividing time between trying to restore to her children some sense of normal life, helping other victims and serving her community.

She’s a Parent-Teacher Organization leader at Abington’s Woodsdale Elementary School, where daughter Julia, 8, is a student. She has established a non-profit foundation in Jeff’s name to help local children, and she’s taken on a leading role in the state’s victim relief foundation.

“She’s amazing,” said Abington resident Claire Burgess, who is helping organize the Sept. 14 Jeffrey Coombs Memorial Road Race. “To see her out there all the time, it’s an example to everybody of strength that is just unbelievable. We can all learn a lot from her.”

Coombs has played a large part in the formation and success of the Massachusetts 9-11 Fund, which has raised nearly $1.5 million for victims’ families.

In addition to raising money, the group provides support services and a sense of community for victims.

Today, the group is focusing on ways to get through the anniversary of the tragedy.

Page 2 of 2 - Coombs said family members are planning to attend an event in Boston and get together afterward to “relax together and share what we’re going through.”

Linda Plazonja, executive director of the Massachusetts 9-11 Fund, said Coombs’ willingness to speak for the victims has been essential to the group’s efforts.

“To have a family member that’s so willing to share herself with the public and put herself out there, it’s so critical to what we’re doing,” she said. “A lot of people can’t do what she’s doing.”

But public exposure has its drawbacks.

During the rare moments that Coombs can stop thinking about Jeff, someone who recognizes and approaches her at a grocery store can bring the emotions flooding back.

She has recounted the story of Jeff’s life and Sept. 11 in dozens of speeches and interviews, talking about her husband’s dedication to his children, his laughter that filled the family’s home and the incredible void she deals with every day. At times, she said, the grief is still as raw as it was on Sept. 11, 2001. She brushes off suggestions that the pain is supposed to fade after a year.

As the avalanche of anniversary events and media coverage unfolds, Coombs would like to see the country regain the “amazing” solidarity it showed in the immediate aftermath of the attacks.

“I’d like people to remember how they felt a year ago, how this horrible event changed all of us and brought out that feeling of compassion. I’d like us to get that back, as America being united,” she said. “Just take a moment to reflect on that day, what it meant, and how it brought out the best of everybody.”